Plainspoken Axis Teal

English compound plain + spoken — past-participle of speak. As a color modifier, plainspoken implies a clear-and-direct-and-straightforward quality where the hue carries the visual register of unembellished-honest declaration. Sits at the crisp-and-honest end of the grid, parallel to candid and direct in usage.

Latin axis, axle-or-pivot. As a color modifier, axis implies a rotational-pole-and-polar-spin quality, the visual register of Earth-axial-tilt-and-Polaris-axis hand-rotational-pole-and-polar-spin Earth-axial-tilt-and-Polaris-and-celestial-pole axis-and-rotational-pole-and-polar-spin surfaces under Earth-axial-tilt-and-Polaris-and-celestial-pole 23.5-degree-and-precession-and-celestial-mechanics polar-pivot-light. Sits at the modifier-and-cosmic end of the grid, parallel to orbit and zenith in usage.

Anas crecca, the small dabbling duck whose male in breeding plumage sports a chestnut head crossed by a glossy green-blue stripe. The color refers to that stripe — the iridescent panel just behind the eye: a saturated, slightly muted blue-green with the optical depth of structural color rather than pigment. Cooler than cypress, warmer than cerulean, with the ornithological specificity of a color named for one feather of one bird.